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MLB — A’s at Giants, 3 p.m., CSNBA Monday Tuesday MLB — Orioles at Giants, 7 p.m., CSNBA NBA — Celtics at Lakers, 6 p.m., ABC-7 Sports 1B Monday June 14, 2010 Celtics handle Kobe onslaught, lead LA 3-2 Celtics 92, Lakers 86 BOSTON (AP) — It’s looking a lot like 2008 again, with Paul Pierce carrying the Boston Celtics to victory in the NBA finals and leading them to the brink of yet another title. Pierce scored 27 points — his best perfor- mance of this year’s finals — and the Celtics withstood 38 points from Kobe Bryant to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 92-86 on Sunday night and take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 6 is Tuesday night in Los Angeles, and a victory then or in Game 7 in L.A. on Thursday would give the Celtics a record 18th NBA championship. Pierce was the finals MVP in ’08, when the new Big Three beat the Lakers to raise an NBA- record 17th banner to the rafters at Boston’s TD Garden. Bryant was the finals MVP last year, when the Lakers beat the Orlando Magic to win their 15th championship. With the ‘‘Beat L.A!’’ chant returning to the Garden, Kevin Garnett scored 18 points with 10 rebounds and Rajon Rondo had 18 points, eight assists and five rebounds to help Boston become the first team in the series to win two games in a row. If the Los Angeles can’t do the same at home, the Celtics will improve to 10-2 against them in the finals dating back to a 4-0 sweep over the Minneapolis Lakers in 1959. Bryant did everything he could to keep the Lakers in it. He scored 23 straight Lakers points between the 4:23 mark of the second quarter until there was 2:16 left in the third. But that’s also the time when the Celtics built their biggest lead: Over that span, they expanded the lead from one point to 13. That’s because Pierce was having his best game of the series, too. And he also had help. The Celtics’ captain scored seven points in the last 3 1/2 minutes of the second quarter and added nine more in the first 5 minutes of the third. Ray Allen, who hasn’t hit a 3-pointer since making an NBA-record eight in Game 2, made a pair of baskets that gave Boston a 71-58 lead with 3:08 left in the third. The Lakers got within six points several times, but never within five until Bryant made three free throws to make it 87-82 with 90 sec- onds left. The Celtics got a break from a review when replays showed Allen’s 3-pointer barely nicked the rim, giving them the ball with a fresh 24 seconds and 1:05 left. Rasheed Wallace missed a 3-pointer, but the rebound wound up tied up between the 6-foot-11 Garnett and 6-foot-1 Derek Fisher. Fisher won, tipping the ball ahead to Ron Artest for a breakaway; he was fouled, and he missed both free throws. This time Bryant grabbed the rebound, but Pierce ripped it out of his arms and dribbled off to the side to call timeout. A desperate inbounds pass went to Pierce, who fed Rondo under the basket before falling out of bounds, and Rondo made an over-the- head layup to make it 89-82 with 36 seconds left. Bryant missed a series of desperation 3- pointers down the stretch, and when Allen made two free throws with 19 seconds left and Garnett one of two with 8.9 to play, it was over. Pau Gasol scored 12 points with 12 rebounds and Fisher, the Game 3 star, scored all nine of his points in the first quarter as no other Laker reached double figures in scoring until Gasol hit See KOBE, page 2B MCT photo Los Angeles Lakers Ron Artest and Boston Celtics Paul Pierce battle for position under the basket during the first half of Game 5 in the NBA Finals on Sunday at TD Garden in Boston, Mass. Huff homers twice in Giants win Westwood wins 2nd PGA title in playoff MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Lee Westwood has played golf long enough to be philosophi- cal despite all the times he’s come up short when so very close to victory. The Englishman who finished second at the Masters, lost a playoff in Dubai and finished tied for fourth at The Players Championship this year won the St. Jude Classic for his second career PGA Tour victory and first since 1998, beating Swede Robert Karlsson on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff Sunday. ‘‘You try to do the right thing all the time,’’ West- wood said. ‘‘It doesn’t always work for you. I’ve been in contention a lot, especially this year, and I suppose I got a break MCT photo San Francisco Giants catcher Bengie Molina (1) tags out Oakland Athletics Landon Powell (35) as he attempts to score at home plate in the fourth inning on Sunday at AT&T Park in San Francisco. San Francisco defeated Oakland 6-2. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Aubrey Huff backed Matt Cain with two big swings, and cracked on the surging right-hander after another Giants win. Huff hit a pair of two- run homers, Cain powered his way to his fourth con- secutive win and San Fran- cisco beat the Oakland Athletics 6-2 on Sunday to complete a three-game series sweep. ‘‘I already stole your thunder Cain,’’ Huff joked as the pitcher spoke with reporters in the clubhouse. ‘‘That’s the answer to all your questions,’’ Cain laughed in response. Huff signed a one-year deal with the Giants in the offseason and got off to a sluggish start. He batted .247 with two homers in April but has been a tear since then, hitting .336 since May 1. The veteran slugger, who had 15 homers with Baltimore and Detroit last season, has six homers and 13 RBIs over his last 16 games alone. ‘‘The first month of the season I really tried to beat it and got in a lot of bad habits,’’ Huff said. ‘‘I just got to a point where I stopped caring and just started seeing the ball and hitting it. If it goes, it goes. If it doesn’t you take your doubles and triples.’’ The Giants, who were swept by the A’s last month in Oakland, improved to 8- 4 in June after scuffling to a 14-14 mark in May. They moved a season-high eight games over .500 and pulled within 1 1/2 games of first- place San Diego in the NL West. Manager Bruce Bochy altered his lineup before the game, moving Pablo Sandoval into the No. 2 slot while dropping Juan Uribe to fourth in the order. The changes worked nicely. Sandoval walked in the sixth and scored on Huff’s ninth homer. Uribe, batting cleanup for only the sixth time this season, followed with a drive to left to make it 4-1. Sandoval also walked in the eighth before Huff hit a 2-2 pitch from Craig Bres- low over the wall in right for his 10th career multi- homer game. ‘‘We got shut down at their place and we certainly wanted to return the favor,’’ Bochy said. ‘‘There’s no getting around that. We wanted to get even with them and guys played well.’’ Cain (6-4) allowed one run and eight hits over seven innings. He is 4-0 with a 0.55 ERA in four starts since his last loss May 22 at Oakland, when the A’s got an unearned run off the hard-throwing righty in a 1-0 victory. ‘‘I’m just trying to get guys to swing early,’’ Cain said. ‘‘I think I’m locating both sides of the plate a lit- tle better. That carries into being able to get other stuff working as well.’’ Jack Cust had three sin- gles for Oakland, which dropped its sixth straight game at AT&T Park. ‘‘We made too many mistakes,’’ A’s manager Bob Geren said. ‘‘There were some positive things but there were errors that led to runs. It wasn’t a good series, it really wasn’t. We had too many things go wrong in a three-game series to overcome.’’ Vin Mazzaro (2-1) pitched a season-best six innings for Oakland, yield- ing four runs, three earned, and six hits. Cain ran his scoreless streak to 16 innings before Landon Powell hit a two- out RBI single in the fourth. Cliff Pennington then doubled to right but Powell was thrown out try- ing to score, ending the inning. Cain pitched out of another jam in the sixth. With one out and runners at the corners, he struck out Adam Rosales and retired Powell on a bouncer to sec- ond. San Francisco’s bullpen nearly let Cain’s latest gem get away. Reliever Dan Runzler’s throwing error set up Kevin Kouzmanoff’s RBI single in the eighth. Guillermo Mota then came in and walked two batters to load the bases before Santiago Casilla got pinch- hitter Mark Ellis to pop up for the final out of the inning. The Giants grabbed a 1- 0 lead in the second. Pat Burrell singled, took sec- ond on a throwing error by third baseman Kouzmanoff and scored on Bengie Molina’s single. today with other people’s misfortune but made the most of it and took a chance.’’ He became the first European to win the tour’s third-longest event only after Robert Garrigus blew a three-stroke lead on the final hole of regu- lation with a triple bogey. He bogeyed the first play- off hole. Garrigus said he thought he had a two- stroke lead on the 72nd hole instead of three and called it just stupidity. ‘‘It’s little things to win. I’ve got to learn that, and next time I’m in that position I’m going to do it,’’ Garrigus said. Westwood and Karls- son went par-par-bogey until they returned to No. See PGA, page 2B World Cup Sunday JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A look at Day 3 Sun- day at the 2010 World Cup RESULTS Germany 4, Australia 0, Group D Slovenia 1, Algeria 0, Group C Ghana 1, Serbia 0, Group D HIGHLIGHTS • Asamoah Gyan scored on an 84th-minute penalty kick as Ghana beat Serbia 1-0 in Group D. Zdravko Kuzmanovic needlessly handled a cross in the area, then argued the call and yellow card he received. Gyan drove the first penalty kick of the tournament high to the left for the only goal at Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria. • Slovenia, the smallest nation in the tournament with about 2 million people, took the lead in Group C over the United States and England with a 1-0 win over Algeria. Robert Koren scored a late goal. • Germany became the highest-scoring team in this tournament in a hurry thanks to a 4-0 rout of Australia at Durban. Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Mueller and Cacau scored in Group D. LOWLIGHTS Three red cards were handed out Sunday, and all of them were given by referees from Latin America. Two players were ejected with a pair of yellows, while Tim Cahill of Australia got a direct red against Germany. Cahill was ejected by Marco Rodriguez of Mexico in a 4-0 loss to Germany. Serbia’s Aleksandar Lukovic received two yellows from Hector Baldassi of Argenti- na in a 1-0 defeat against Ghana. Abdelkader Ghezzal of Algeria drew two yellows from Carlos Batres of Guatemala. STARS Slovenia captain Robert Koren struck a long-range shot that Algeria goalkeeper Fawzi Chaouchi mis- judged and allowed to bounce into the net off his arm in the 79th minute for a 1-0 victory. Captain Philipp Lahm guided Germany’s dominant victory over Australia and set up the second goal in a 4- 0 win with a perfect cross to Miroslav Klose for the second score. HISTORY See CUP, page 2B